In this tightly wound tale of impersonation, fortune hunting, heir baiting and generally obnoxious skulduggery, John Dickson Carr intersperses the text with nine answers to questions that might lie in the mind of the justly suspicious reader. Each step in this carefully choreographed cat-and-mouse ballet leads the reader into another intellectual pitfall.

Bill Dawson, down on his luck in New York, falls into a proposition that he can’t say no to. He will, for a fee of $10,000, return to England as Laurence Hurst, heir to a considerable fortune from his doddering uncle Gaylord Hurst. The only catch to this game is that Dawson must call weekly on Uncle Gay and be a proper nephew and heir.

The switch in identities is quickly made and Dawson is on his way to England. He isn’t even across the briny when his ex-flame Marjorie Blair insinuates herself into the adjoining seat and into his plans by unmasking him without a moment’s hesitation.

If she can spot his deception, how long will it take for Uncle Gay to penetrate the disguise and turn his sadistic manservant loose? When this comes true, the cat-and-mouse game starts. Bill “Larry Hurst” Dawson will inherit nothing, unless he outlives Uncle Gay and Uncle Gay swears that Dawson won’t live out the week. THE GAME IS AFOOT!

The Nine Wrong Answers is a Sherlock Holmes buff’s treasure. Not only is the great detective cited as an authority on many of the points raised in the pursuit of truth in this tale but one of the final scenes takes place in and around the Sherlock Holmes sitting room prepared for the 1951 Exhibition in Baker Street.

As ever, Carr’s characters are complex and well developed and the plot is sufficiently convoluted to test the wits of the most sophisticated reader. This book has been too long out of print. We welcome it back as a classic “MUST” on everyone’s list.

I think NINE WRONG ANSWERS was his last great book. Following this one, and ignoring his short story collections, as well as his historical mysteries, of which I’ve never managed to read one, here’s what he wrote:

Any serious Carr fan can’t but being disappointed with the final Merrivales. Carr’s later work is as distressing as Christie’s.

It’s interesting that conversion to “Carrism” almost always takes place at adolescence and usually lasts for life. I was fourteen when I read my first Carr, “Drop To His Death” (a.k.a. “Fatal Descent”) and I was hooked at once. As it coincided with French publisher Le Masque reviving Carr’s work, I spent the next years reading everything Carr.

Well, it looks like I’m by myself again. I’ve read the later Merrivales, and enjoyed all of them. A GRAVEYARD TO LET is right up there with his best, NIGHT AT THE MOCKING WIDOW is great fun. BEHIND THE CRIMSON BLIND and especially THE CAVALIER’S CUP tend towards humour more than detection, but if you accept that, then they’re perfectly acceptable. CAVALIER’S CUP actually has a nice explanation for the impossible crime, although it isn’t sufficiently complex for a novel. The final HM stories actually stand up better than the last Fell stories. To be honest, though, even the final Fell stories aren’t that bad. They’re hardly up to the standard of his greatest works, but when I imagine him sitting there half paralysed I’m astounded that he could write anything. I was warned off the Carr historicals by someone years ago, only to discover that they were tremendously enjoyable. THE DEVIL IN VELVET and BRIDE OF NEWGATE are classics.